Urban and regional planners customarily focus on developing land use plans and programs to accommodate growing communities, keeping in mind social, economic and environmental realities.Now a law in California shaping how planning is carried out requires another element to be considered: environmental justice. Known as SB 1000, this law offers a policy solution to guide community organizing and legislative processes to implement cutting edge programs.

The U.S. municipal market has always faced credit exposure to weather-related and natural catastrophes – such as fires, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.However, what were previously viewed as one-off implications for creditworthiness – transitory storms, for example – can increasingly be analyzed through the lens of climate change risk. As such, there are possible risks faced by U.S. municipal issuers as a result of a rapidly changing climate.

Communities wrestling with critical stormwater management issues have a new tool to help local decision makers throughout the U.S. integrate trees into facility design regulations and policies for new and retro-fitted installations.TreesAndStormwater.org developed by the Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), the USDA Forest Service and other national partners, was created specifically to help overcome the widespread lack of understanding, acceptance and credibility of using trees for green infrastructure to manage stormwater.

There is only one obstacle standing between the college town of Laramie, Wyo., and the year-round recreational opportunities of the Medicine Bow National Forest just to the east.That obstacle is a spread of 5,528 acres of privately owned land, sloping uphill from the edge of Laramie to what is known as Pilot Hill, which also happens to stand atop a portion of the Casper Aquifer, the main water supply for Laramie and the surrounding area.

As market interest continues to mount in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and water conservation measures, U.S. cities and states are witnessing substantial reductions in their environmental footprints, as well as an ongoing mass transformation of the generating grid.In order to finance this green transition, many municipalities across the country are taking advantage of the green bond as a form of financing.

LED streetlights have been around for a while, but the communities that have made the conversion from older technologies in recent years are discovering a plethora of benefits that go well beyond saving millions of dollars on energy and maintenance.With wireless mobile controls, automated management features and the ability to add a variety of high-tech sensors and other devices to individual nodes, these definitely aren’t your father’s streetlights.

In contrast to the euphoric Paris conference of 2015, where 195 countries agreed to limit global warming below two degrees Celsius, the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany was a more subdued event.After a year of multiple extreme weather events around the world, some delegations expressed their growing sense of urgency for action, particularly the small island states and developing countries looking to focus more attention on climate change adaptation.

It is late December, the days are short, the temperatures chilly, and in much of the country plants and insects are dormant or headed south.But to make sure they keep coming back, now is the time to start thinking about creating a robust environment for pollinators, said Phyllis Stiles, founder and director of Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA.

With busy households ordering takeout more than ever, municipalities are seeing a rapid escalation in the volume of foodservice packaging in their waste streams.Now, with new technology and education, many communities are finding ways to route cups, pizza boxes and paper bags away from the landfill and into the recycling system.

MILLBROOK, N.Y. -- Traditional toxicity testing underestimates the risk that pharmaceutical and personal care product pollution poses to freshwater ecosystems.Criteria that account for ecological disruption – not just organism death – are needed to protect surface waters, which are under pressure from a growing population and escalating synthetic chemical use. So reports a new study published recently in Elementa.

Vibrant public gathering spaces make communities more livable.“At their best, public spaces are where communities come together,” said Sharon Yazowski, executive director of the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation. “They are platforms for civic engagement and for social dialogue. They are vehicles for connection where neighbors meet, where strangers can interact easily with each other, where people can share a sense of belonging, and where communities can heal.”

Technological and economic changes have created new opportunities in small-scale manufacturing and the “maker” economy, which present a chance for communities to make progress on several important economic development issues.Small-scale manufacturing can grow local entrepreneurship and small business, develop or enhance new and existing economic sectors, and revitalize downtowns and business districts, according to a new report by Smart Growth America.

Imagine a fantasy world where solar roofs or panels efficiently and cheaply generate electricity to be stored for weeks in a customer's diminutive and low-cost battery.Such a world would have little need for a centralized, fully integrated (generation, transmission, and distribution) electric utility, relying instead on self-sustaining battery-combined "distributed generation" systems.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its "final report" on how it plans to implement President Trump’s executive order curbing environmental regulations in order to promote energy production and economic growth.Required by law to issue a request for public comments when considering changes to environmental regulations, the EPA reported receiving more than 460,000 comments, including a record-breaking 63,346 individual responses.

Community gardening isn't undertaken for the health and well-being of squash and tomatoes. Rather, it is all about the people who otherwise have limited access to fresh, nutritious foods.That's why groups in Madison, Wis., and Douglas County, Kan., have focused on developing food systems that include community gardening and that make equity a central part of their framework.

Public/private partnerships can make a positive difference for communities trying to encourage development or redevelopment, particularly in their downtowns.But sometimes apathy — exacerbated by public officials who are popular but not good at their jobs, or city staff who want to be in charge of policy — get in the way.

The Greater Kansas City area is known for the state line that divides its two metropolitan parts between Kansas and Missouri. There are many other borders: county lines, city limits and political stripes.It’s the latter that makes action around climate resilience seem insurmountable at times, but a coalition has come together to develop a strategy.

MILLBROOK, N.Y. – Through a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) is partnering with Baltimore City Public Schools to transform the way that chemistry is taught in the city’s high schools.The innovative approach draws on data gathered by BES to convey how chemistry shapes the local environment.

Farmers markets are becoming more popular than ever across the country, as consumers become more concerned about the safety and quality of mass-produced and processed foods. When combined with arts and entertainment components, these local food venues can become the focal point in a community’s placemaking, tourism and economic development endeavors.Farmers markets can also play a critical role in strengthening community resilience, fighting obesity, improving health and supporting disadvantaged neighborhoods in urban food deserts.

Pacific salmon and trout are vulnerable to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), a pathogen that can be lethal to juvenile fish.A recent Ecology and Evolution study is the first to explore how IHNV spreads among juvenile hatchery-raised fish in the Pacific Northwest, where high rates of infection and mortality can occur.

CASCADE, Iowa — Kim and Marvin Lynch’s dairy farm in Cascade was certified as organic in 2009, but the process wasn’t easy.The Lynches had to discontinue using fertilizers, insecticides and synthetic herbicides in the fields of their third-generation farm for three years before it could be certified. Their cows could no longer be given a regular regimen of antibiotics.

California’s biogas market could be at a turning point in 2018 as regulatory bodies push to eliminate current barriers facing project developers.“We’re getting successes in ones and twos and tens of projects, and we need a couple of hundred, 500, a thousand,” said Tim Olson, a senior policy adviser on transportation-related topics for the California Energy Commission, a state government agency.

Speeding — exceeding a speed limit or driving too fast for conditions — is one of the most common factors in motor vehicle crashes in the United States.In this safety study, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) examines causes of and trends in speeding-related passenger vehicle crashes and countermeasures to prevent these crashes.

In most U.S. states, 16- and 17-year-old citizens are considered old enough to drive on local roads, work in local businesses, attend local schools and pay local taxes.Now a nationwide campaign is pushing to give these young people the right to vote in local elections as well.

DUBUQUE, Iowa – An Oscar winning filmmaker, a Peabody Award winning broadcaster and a “Champion of Change” climate and resiliency planner are set to address attendees at this year’s Growing Sustainable Communities Conference, which celebrates its 10th anniversary at the Grand River Center in the Port of Dubuque on Oct. 3-4.Louie Psihoyos, Majora Carter and Kristin Baja will deliver the keynote and plenary addresses at the conference. Registration is open at GSCDubuque.com, and early bird rates apply through Aug. 27.

How often do you get to build a city from the ground up — every building, street, light pole and operating system? That’s exactly what Johnson Controls is doing with Hall of Fame Village LLC at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.In an 18-year project initiated in late 2016, the two organizations are creating the first sports and entertainment “smart” city, a state-of-the-art $700 million development being spearheaded by the Hall of Fame and Industrial Realty Group.

The city of Chattanooga, Tenn., is home to many firsts when it comes to sustainable transportation.From being one of the first cities in the nation to offer free rides on electric buses, to starting one of the first electric vehicle ride-share programs, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) is paving the way for innovative and cleaner transportation.

MILLBROOK, N.Y. - A new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology reports that in Baltimore neighborhoods with high levels of residential abandonment are hotspots for tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus).This environmental injustice may leave low-income urban residents more vulnerable to mosquito-borne disease.

During its successful presidential campaign, the Trump Administration derived much of its support from (and perhaps owes its victory to) blue collar, rust belt residents.These individuals feel they have been left behind not just by the changes in the economy, but by the ongoing transformation of the energy sector in the United States, which has left coal-fired generation (and related extraction industries) in the figurative dust.

Like the country music that made it famous, the city of Nashville, Tenn., has been through some changes in recent years.Just as the “Nashville sound” of Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline gradually gave way to the more raucous and glitzy contemporary country music of Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift, so has the city itself gone from a quiet little town of less than 180,000 in 1960 to one of the fastest growing urban centers in the South, now with more than 650,000 people and an estimated 85 to 100 more arriving every day.

When it all comes down to it, sustainability is really about designing healthy places to live and work for generations to come.So, it only stands to reason that hospitals can be important allies in that endeavor. After all, who knows better how to promote wellness than the institutions established with that very mission in mind? If your community isn’t already integrating resources from local healthcare institutions into its sustainability plans, now might be the time to reach out.

As of the end of 2016, more than 1,000 jurisdictions in the United States have made formal commitments to streets that are safe and convenient for everyone — no matter their age, income, race, ethnicity, physical ability, or how they choose to travel — by passing a complete streets policy, according to a new report issued by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition.More communities passed these policies in 2016 than ever before.

DUBUQUE, Iowa – The Growing Sustainable Communities Conference celebrates its 10th anniversary at the Grand River Center in the Port of Dubuque on Oct. 3-4.Registration is now open on the conference web site at www.GSCDubuque.com.

The sustainability community erupted with nearly universal dismay, outrage and resolve in the face of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement late last week. But few were really surprised.After all, Trump was merely making good on another campaign promise, pitting his administration against the 71 percent of U.S. citizens who believe climate change is a clear and present danger, and joining only the countries of Syria and Nicaragua in defiance of the accord, which was signed by nearly 200 nations.

Over the last several decades, real estate developers and urban designers have watched building code books swell from the size of small booklets to the size of dictionaries.Some say the increase in regulations has been essential to protect life, limb and property. Others think politics, special interest groups and neglect have supplanted common sense to create a hopelessly complex array of outdated, expensive and unnecessary mandates that serve to push small developers out of the marketplace altogether.

Gentrification has changed the composition of a number of urban areas in the United States and internationally. In the U.S., this has sometimes meant the displacement of poorer communities of color by wealthier white populations moving in and pricing them out of the market.Often, the phenomenon results from profit-driven developers seeking cheap land in neighborhoods that have a history of disinvestment. Cities like Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., among others, are often identified in tandem with gentrification.

According to a recent report on urban mobility trends, San Francisco is the North American city that has made the most progress toward operating a zero emissions transportation system.The report, published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), also shows that Oslo, London and Amsterdam are the cities worldwide that offer the most advanced, sustainable city transport solutions.

A new study released by Smart Growth America and the University of Utah helps decision makers determine how much parking is required at transit-oriented developments (TODs) compared to developments without transit or transit stations without development.The land near transit stations is a valuable commodity. Hundreds or thousands of people travel to and through these places each day, and decisions about what to do with this land have implications for local economies, transit ridership, residents’ access to opportunity, and overall quality of life for everyone.